I haven't been playing much this week, working nights at work for a month and my schedule is thirteen hours a day, six days a week which sucks. But I've been chipping away at the achievements for A:CM because for whatever reason I decided I want to get all the achievements for it. Well more like in the course of playing I got almost all of them and decided why not go for the last four? Sadly three out of four of them are tied to playing the multiplayer and during my brief time window in the morning before I go to sleep NO ONE is playing. So those achievement just sit there taunting me... And as much as I enjoy the multiplayer (which for the most part I think is crazy fun, the balance is much better than I was expecting) I despise the way the online challenges for unlocking things work. They're sequential, so you have to do them in order. Meaning it doesn't matter how many enemies I kill with a certain weapon or in a certain way, unless the challenge that applies to is the one you're currently on you get no credit at all. Fucking morons who designed this game need to be whipped. Also the online matchmaking is complete ass. It's like they took the matchmaker for Halo 2 and said, "this is ok but it's too robust and easy to use, we need to dial it back a notch."

The cars handled like shit, the social dynamic was annoying as fuck and there were many battles that were unduly hard due to shitty camera angles and the text message retry a mission thing wasn't a real replacement for a proper checkpoint system because you still burned through ammo and money and I don't want a sandbox game that has stuff that sucks in real life as a "feature" like paying tolls or the spaghetti bowl road system in a few of the areas like charge island. I beat the game because I felt obligated to after I started it and while there are a few missions that still stand out to me as awesome, but overall the game felt like a slog to finish. In most respects the DLC was better than the core game, especially the Lost because the new bikes they added didn't handle completely like ass and I liked the base jumping they added in Ballad of Gay Tony. I could also bitch about how Rockstar's Bully, which was a PS2 game, had a more in depth character customizing system than the "newer and better" game. I was seriously mystified at the lack of clothing choices compared and that you couldn't change his hair style/color or even make him shave that patchy ass stubble/beard. In a lot of technical ways it was good but it wasn't much fun.

While you're technically right, I still had a blast with the game. Most of the problems were hilarious to me. When my SUV was handling like a dying star and COMPLETELY missed a corner only to slide sideways down the sidewalk for a block, or when I stood up in the middle of a gun fight to stammer "Sorry cousin, I am a leetle busy", I usually was too busy losing my shit to get TOO frustrated. And yeah, Niko looked like someone made a human out of warm lard, but I like him, if only because during a fight he had a habit of screaming "I WILL EAT YOUR HEART", which is possibly the coolest thing anyone can say to anyone else.

The cars handled like shit, the social dynamic was annoying as fuck and there were many battles that were unduly hard due to shitty camera angles and the text message retry a mission thing wasn't a real replacement for a proper checkpoint system because you still burned through ammo and money and I don't want a sandbox game that has stuff that sucks in real life as a "feature" like paying tolls or the spaghetti bowl road system in a few of the areas like charge island. I beat the game because I felt obligated to after I started it and while there are a few missions that still stand out to me as awesome, but overall the game felt like a slog to finish. In most respects the DLC was better than the core game, especially the Lost because the new bikes they added didn't handle completely like ass and I liked the base jumping they added in Ballad of Gay Tony. I could also bitch about how Rockstar's Bully, which was a PS2 game, had a more in depth character customizing system than the "newer and better" game. I was seriously mystified at the lack of clothing choices compared and that you couldn't change his hair style/color or even make him shave that patchy ass stubble/beard. In a lot of technical ways it was good but it wasn't much fun.

The handling of the cars wasn't shit though, they felt so much better in GTA IV. The handling was more realistic over the arcadey floatyness of the past games controls, you could feel the weight of the vehicle you were driving, drifting, turning, doing anything FEELS so much better, each car feels unique, where as the other games it was basically just a few classes with cars that all had about the same relative feel and speed. I felt more in control over my vehicle with GTA IV... The other games its like an arcade game or something. I never had issues with camera controls, and once again, they were a huge improvement over the god awful controls of the past games, like that stupid lock on shit or whatever that barely functioned, the aiming feels much nicer here, and you have more freedom of control.The game doesn't make you use toll booths at all, that's just getting nitpicky, I used them like... Once in my entire playthrough of the game, maybe? That's like complaining about being able to honk the horns of the cars or whatever, you don't have to use it, but it's there.

San Andreas was the only one I ever beat of the original games, everything felt so unfun in the past games. I felt so much more satisfaction in doing anything with IV... Getting into combat and popping shots off at guys from cover, watching their lifeless bodies flop to the ground or flip around or what have you, hitting an enemy and the satisfying thump and flopping of their ragdoll body over the hood, where in the original they die the same lazyily animated death every time and float over or under your car, same for shooting bad guys, just the same dumb looking deaths every time, as you cruise around the bland 1999 PC game looking worlds that felt so unalive. San Andreas stood out more for me because I just found most of the missions more enjoyable, and the side stuff you could do was lots of fun as well.

I will give you the social stuff though, the darts and bowling was kinda fun at first, but it really wears thin, and it sucks when you're in the middle of whatever and you get a call to go do some stupid shit.

Tollbooths kind of forced your hand, as you could either stop and pay at them, or gain a wanted level. I thought they were kind of neat and always used them, but that's just me. And the cars did handle kind of obnoxiously, I've seen that complaint more often than not, and I definitely see it. They just feel... floppy and weird, I guess. Personally, I liked the older games more, with San Andreas being the best out of them all. GTA IV just felt like it was trying too hard, like the writers watched a shitload of Scorcese movies before the writing. As for the lock on and the animations of deaths... That's just how things were then. It doesn't effect the gameplay much, other than being able to laugh at the ragdolls. Lock on is definitely better now, even if it does make the game a lot easier.

I know the death animations don't really have much bearing on the actual gameplay itself, but if I'm going to be spending a majority of the game killing stuff, I want it to look and feel interesting. San Andreas came out in 2004, and at that time, and even before, ragdoll physics were being widely used, along with proper aiming systems, but the games barely improved from a technical standpoint as the series progressed (sans GTA IV), meanwhile you have game's like True Crime which, again, from a technical standpoint, looka much better. And that came out in 2003.

Gonna play more Killzone Mercenary. Almost at the end now. Maybe after I'll play some more Doom with Brutal Doom.

I know the death animations don't really have much bearing on the actual gameplay itself, but if I'm going to be spending a majority of the game killing stuff, I want it to look and feel interesting. San Andreas came out in 2004, and at that time, and even before, ragdoll physics were being widely used, along with proper aiming systems, but the games barely improved from a technical standpoint as the series progressed (sans GTA IV), meanwhile you have game's like True Crime which, again, from a technical standpoint, looka much better. And that came out in 2003.

Gonna play more Killzone Mercenary. Almost at the end now. Maybe after I'll play some more Doom with Brutal Doom.

I love shooting peeps in the legs and watch them stumbling around. The physics engine in it is cutting edge since everyone is in full ragtime mode all the time.

Logged

"Dem Undead Gits go down just like any 'umies do, just gotta aim for da 'ead.""Dakkadakkadakka""Nothing like the smell of hot plasma in the morning"